Fact-check

Alt News had earlier debunked this claim as part of an exposé on Facebook page ‘Yogi Adityanath ki Sena.’ We had found that the misinformation was created lifting a photograph of a man named Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani who describes himself as a data science, blockchain and AI consultant on Facebook and is from Pakistan. The man has an account on Twitter as well and had posted on Facebook the same photograph used by ‘Yogi Adityanath ki Sena.’Pradesh

A similar claim was viral in September 2017, shared by right-wing influencers like Anshul Saxena and Soman Mahajan.

Saxena had uploaded a press note which said that a man named Mohammed Ahmed was arrested in Hamirpur, Uttar Pradesh for creating a fake ID on Facebook by using pictures of former ABVP district in-charge and vice-president of Hindu Yuva Vahini Sundaram Singh. According to the press note, Ahmed used the ID to post objectional and obscene content and also passed derogatory remarks at Ramayana and the Gita to spark a communal riot. This read similar to currently viral social media posts. However, it is noteworthy that while the posts claimed that Ahmed was arrested in Himachal Pradesh, the press note claimed he was arrested in Uttar Pradesh.

A time search on Twitter led us to the press note originally tweeted by Hamirpur police on September 27, 2017.

It can thus be established that a 2017 incident of a Muslim man arrested for posing as a Hindu and posting hateful remarks on social media has since been floating with an exaggerated and misleading narrative. The incident was an isolated case which is being used to target the Muslim community. Moreover, it took place in Uttar Pradesh but several social media users have used an image sourced from a random Facebook profile and claimed that the incident occurred in Himachal Pradesh.